With 30 million page views and counting since 2013, these super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website. Melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, cornstarch, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the absolute chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. And you don’t even need a mixer!
I originally published this recipe in 2013 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips. This recipe is such a fan (and personal) favorite that I included it in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
One reader, Adrienne, commented: “These are the best cookies I’ve ever had. Incredible. Don’t cut corners or you’ll miss out. Do everything she says and you’re in for the best cookies of your life. ★★★★★“
There are thousands of chocolate chip cookies recipes out there. Everyone has their favorite and this one is mine. Just a glance at the hundreds of reviews in the comments section tells me that this recipe is a favorite for many others too! In fact, if you asked me which recipe to keep in your apron pocket, my answer would be this one. (In addition to a classic cut-out sugar cookies and flaky pie crust, of course!) Just read the comments on a post in our Facebook group. These cookies are beloved… and, a warning: they disappear FAST.
Why Are These My BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- The chewiest of chewy and the softest of soft.
- Extra thick just like my favorite peanut butter cookies!
- Bakery-style BIG.
- Exploding with chocolate.
I’ve tested this cookie recipe over and over again to make sure they’re absolutely perfect. I still have a big space in my heart (and stomach) for these soft chocolate chip cookies. Today’s recipe is similar, but I increased the chewiness factor.
One reader, A.Phillips, commented: “Look no further. This is it. This is the perfect cookie recipe. Follow her instructions exactly and the cookies will be chewy and amazing. … These are the most perfect cookies I’ve made and I’ve tried at least 20 different recipes. ★★★★★“
You can make them with chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
Key Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
The cookie dough is made from your standard cookie ingredients: flour, leavener, salt, sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla. It’s the ratios and temperature of those ingredients that make this recipe stand out from the rest.
- Melted butter: Melted butter produces the chewiest cookies. It can, however, make your baked cookies greasy, so I made sure there is enough flour to counteract that. And using melted butter is also the reason you don’t need a mixer to make these cookies, just like these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin crumb cake cookies, and M&M cookie bars.
- More brown sugar than white sugar: More brown sugar than white sugar: The moisture in brown sugar promises an extra soft and chewy baked cookie. White granulated sugar is still necessary, though. It’s dry and helps the cookies spread. A little bit of spread is a good thing.
- Cornstarch: Why? Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick. We use the same trick when making shortbread cookies.
- Egg yolk: Another way to promise a super chewy chocolate chip cookie is to use an extra egg yolk. The extra egg yolk adds richness, soft tenderness, and binds the dough. You will need 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature, just like in these brown butter marshmallow crispy cookies. See the recipe Notes for how to bring your eggs to room temperature quickly.
The dough will be soft and the chocolate chips may not stick because of the melted butter. Just keep stirring it; I promise it will come together. Because of the melted butter and extra egg yolk, the slick dough doesn’t even look like normal cookie dough! Trust the process…
The most important step is next.
2 Major Success Tips
1. Chill the dough. Chilling the cookie dough is so important in this recipe! Unless you want the cookies to spread into a massive cookie puddle, chilling the dough is mandatory here. It allows the ingredients to settle together after the mixing stage but most importantly: cold dough results in thicker cookies. Cover the cookie dough and chill for at least 2–3 hours or up to 3 days. I usually chill it overnight.
(No time to chill? Make these soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie bars, giant chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookie cake, or crispy chocolate chip cookie bark instead!)
- Further reading: How to Prevent Cookies from Spreading
2. Roll the cookie dough balls extra tall. After the dough has chilled, scoop out a ball of dough that’s 3 Tablespoons for XL cookies or about 2 heaping Tablespoons (1.75 ounces or 50g) for medium-large cookies. I usually use this medium cookie scoop and make it a heaping scoop. But making the cookie dough balls tall and textured, rather than wide and smooth, is my tried-and-true trick that results in thick and textured-looking cookies. We’re talking thick bakery-style cookies with wrinkly, textured tops. Your cookie dough should look less like balls and more like, well, lumpy columns, LOL.
Watch the video below to see how I shape them. I also demonstrate how I use a spoon to reshape them during baking if I see they’re spreading too much.
Because of the melted butter in this dough, the dough is very soft and a little greasy before chilling, so it’s harder to shape the cookie dough balls. We recommend chilling first, then shaping. If after chilling the dough is very hard and difficult to scoop, let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes and then try again.
We typically do not recommend jumping right to the freezer without chilling the dough first. A quick freeze like that can cause the dough to chill unevenly and then spread unevenly during the baking process. For best results, we recommend following the recipe as written. If you don’t have time to wait for the dough to chill, try this recipe for 6 giant chocolate chip cookies instead, which doesn’t require dough chilling (see recipe Notes in that post for details on using the dough to make 24 regular-size cookies).
Tools I Recommend for This Recipe
I’ve tested many baking tools and these are the exact products I use, trust, and recommend to readers. You’ll need most of these tools when making sugar cookies and snickerdoodles, too!
- Baking Sheets
- Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets
- Medium Cookie Scoop
- Cooling Racks
- See More: Best Cookie Baking Tools and 8 Best Baking Pans
Can I Freeze This Cookie Dough?
Yes, absolutely. After chilling, sometimes I roll the cookie dough into balls and freeze them in a large zipped-top bag. Then I bake them straight from the freezer, keeping them in the oven for an extra minute. This way you can bake just a couple of cookies whenever the craving hits. (The chewy chocolate chip cookie craving is a hard one to ignore.)
If you’re curious about freezing cookie dough, here’s my How to Freeze Cookie Dough page (with video tutorial).
Facebook member, Leigh, commented: “These are the only CC cookies I’ve made for years (and this recipe is how I came to be such a fan of SBA!) This recipe worked great when I lived in Denver and had issues with baking at altitude, and it’s still our favorite now that we’re back at sea level. I usually make 4x-6x batches and freeze tons of cookie balls to bake later.“
In Short, Here Are the Secrets to Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies.
- Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie.
- An extra egg yolk increases chewiness.
- Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness. It’s a trick we use for cake batter chocolate chip cookies, too.
- Using melted butter (and slightly more flour to counteract the liquid) increases chewiness.
- Chilling the dough results in a thicker cookie. Almost as thick as peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, or their gluten-free counterparts, flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies 🙂
Q: Have you baked a batch before?
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 16 XL cookies or 20 medium/large cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These super soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are the most popular cookie recipe on my website for good reason. Melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, cornstarch, and an extra egg yolk guarantee the absolute chewiest chocolate chip cookie texture. The cookie dough is slick and requires chilling prior to shaping the cookies. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch*
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (170g/12 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted & cooled for 5 minutes
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/4 cups (225g) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk until combined, then whisk in the vanilla extract. The mixture will be thin. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or spatula. The dough will be very soft, thick, and shiny. Fold in the chocolate chips. The chocolate chips may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine them.
- Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight to prevent overspreading.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. If the dough has chilled for longer than 2 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
- Using a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop the chilled cookie dough, about 3 scant Tablespoons (about 2 ounces, or 60g) of dough for XL cookies or 2 heaping Tablespoons (about 1.75 ounces, or 50g) of dough for medium-large cookies. Roll into a ball, then use your fingers to shape the cookie dough so that it’s taller rather than wide—almost like a cylinder. This helps the cookies bake up thicker. Repeat with remaining dough. Arrange the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for 13–14 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. The centers will look very soft, but the cookies will continue to set as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops—this is optional and only for looks!
- Store tightly covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Wooden Spoon or Rubber Spatula | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have cornstarch, you can leave it out. The cookies are still very soft.
- Egg & Egg Yolk: Room-temperature egg + egg yolk are best. Typically, if a recipe calls for room-temperature or melted butter, it’s good practice to use room-temperature eggs as well. To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, simply place the whole eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
- Can I add nuts or different add-ins? Yes, absolutely. As long as the total amount of add-ins is around 1 to 1 and 1/4 cups, you can add anything including chopped nuts, M&Ms, white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chopped peanut butter cups, etc. I love them with 3/4 cup (135g) butterscotch morsels and 1/2 cup (100g) Reese’s Pieces. You could even add 1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles to make a sprinkle chocolate chip cookie.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
The most amazing soft chewy chocolate chip cookies ever, I fully recommend making this recipe 100%!
Where is the old recipe? It auto directs to this one, but I want the previous one (best chocolate chip cookie) as it was fantastic. They’re similar but I have never melted butter for cookies, it just means you HAVE to chill dough back up. I know it was also similar to the mint chip, I’ll just check there. Wish you would keep with up though, the other is fantastic.
Hi Barb, this recipe has always called for melted butter. Are you thinking of my soft chocolate chip cookies?
Sally, your recipes are friggin AWESOME
I have made several of them now. They are easy to follow, and every one has been exceptional.
Whenever I am looking for a recipe now, I always look for yours. Thank you for sharing
I am really enjoying baking for the first time in my 63 years.
My family & hubby’s co-workers enjoy this cookie recipe so much. Our favorite! I just lessen the chocolate chips into 1 cup. Still as awesome!! Soft & chewy just how I like it!
hi sally! i’ve been making this recipe for years without issue but recently they’ve been coming out completely flat, crunchy, and greasy. I’ve tried all of your suggestions like lowering temperature, using silicone baking mats, increasing flour measurements, rolling them into taller balls, refrigerating overnight, but for some reason nothing seems to be working. Any suggestions?
Hi Ronny! Have you changed the kind or brand of butter you’re using? We’re hearing reports of some sub-par butter on the shelves recently, which can make cookies spread too much. You can always try adding a little extra flour.
They taste great but Im wondering if I did something wrong. I was worried about the measurement of the butter. I cut 3/4 of butter, put it in a measuring cup, melted it in the microwave and saw that it resulted in more than 3/4 cups of melted butter. So was I supposed to put the entire melted butter in OR scoop out 12 tablespoons of melted butter? Thanks so much!
Hi Belle, Whenever a recipe calls for melted butter, measure the butter in its solid state, then melt it. You can see more tips here on how to properly measure baking ingredients.
BEST COOKIES EVER!!! Made for my family last week. Making more today & tomorrow for neighbors!
Hii, can you brown and chill the butter before making it instead of only melting? Will it change the texture?
Hi Maddie, You can use brown butter here, and the flavor is outstanding. But they can be a little more crumbly using brown butter – we suggest using the recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies instead.
I make these for my boyfriend and we both love them. Thank so much!
What changes, if any, do you recommend for high altitude bakers? Thank you.
Hi Christy, We wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
I have tried so many different Choc Chip Cookie recipes. This is by far the BEST!!!
These cookies are indeed delicious. Thank you for a great recipe. I’m not an experience baker, and I ran into a couple Issues which I don’t know how to solve next time. I formed the cookie dough into “columns” as you advised. However, when the cookies came out of the oven, they had a dome-like and did not look like yours or regular chocolate chip cookies. Also, even though I cooked them for the full 13 minutes, when I actually sample them later, some of them had some small areas of raw dough in the middle. Any suggestions?
Hi Rachel! If the cookies stayed too domed, there may have been too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. Always use baking times as a guide, you may need to add a minute or two next time. Glad you enjoyed them!
I have been making this recipe for LITERAL years. Its about time I write a comment to say THANK YOU for the most incredible, trusted, fan favourite cookie recipe I have ever baked.
So happy to read this, thank you!
Im a 12 year old that loves baking but i always end up burning my cookies or doing something wrong so i hope this recipe works and the cookies look fantastique so thank you!!!
Best chocolate chip cookies ever! My new “go to” recipe. Thank you!,
I love your site. I wrote out your chocolate chip cookie bar recipe. As I was writing it, I had questions…the next line answered them! The detail is great- knowing the consistency of something and how it should look is soooo helpful. Love the tone and the detail. Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to trying many more recipes- noticed the slow cooker turkey meatballs- definitely going to go back to that one! Thank you! Merry Christmas.
Thank you so much for making our recipes, Chris!
I love to bake and cook. This is the BEST cookie I have ever made. Followed the recipe as is and added chopped walnuts. Amazing! My hubs loves them! Taking a tin of them for a hostess gift tonight. Thank you so much!
This recipe is so good
Could i use bittersweet chocolate chips instead
Definitely.
Hi! I’ve made some of your recipes, and every time they turn out a dome-like shape. Any tips?
Hi Jen-Jen, when cookies aren’t spreading, it usually means that there’s too much dry ingredient (flour) soaking up all the liquid. When measuring flour, use the spoon & level method. Do not scoop the flour out of the container/bag. Doing so leaves you with excess flour in the cookie dough.
These are BY FAR the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever had! My family absolutely adores them, and I have become the designated cookie maker because of these cookies. It’s important to follow the instructions, and use a scale to weigh your ingredients. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!
Hi! Should I scoop the cookie dough before or after the dough chills?
Hi Ryan, after the dough chills! See step 4 – you’ll take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes before scooping. We hope you enjoy these cookies!
I’m thinking of making cookies in a jar to give as gifts to my family, but want something simple, i don’t know if they’ll wanna wait 2-3 hours for the dough to cool. I’ve personally never had to chill my dough. Why do you chill your dough and what happens if you don’t and bake them right away?
Hi Joelle, chilling this dough makes for the best cookie texture and taste, and keeps them from overspreading in the oven.
Can cake flour be used instead of regular flour. I’ve read where people have used it
Hi Mary, we don’t recommend cake flour in these; it’s too light. All-purpose is perfect.
The absolute best chocolate chip cookies.
It’s not bad, but I will cut down the chocolate chips next time. I couldn’t taste much of the cookie itself. After I chilled the dough. It was super stiff and hard to make into balls. I did make this as directed AND with Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 gluten free flour and the gluten free batch might actually be better because I cut back the chocolate slightly since I was using chunks. I do appreciate the tips of why they add corn starch and an extra egg yolk, ect. I love knowing things like that.
Can you use potato starch instead of corn starch? Or is it better to just leave out the starch if you don’t have corn starch?
Hi Elisa, we haven’t tested these with potato starch, so aren’t sure of the results. You can leave out the cornstarch, but expect the cookies to not be quite as soft and chewy.
For some reason the dough i made with this recipe turned out to not be nearly as pliable as in the video, i ended up chilling the dough overnight and when i took it out i let it sit in room temp on the counter for the 10 minutes mentioned in recipe and i found it more viable to use a knife to slice it to desired pieces, besides that when comparing to the included video it looked like i had less melted butter despite measuring the exact amount stated in recipe, what could cause this issue and how could it be solved?
Hi Sileniful, happy to help troubleshoot. Did you use 12 Tbsp/170g butter? Did you make any other changes to the recipe?
Thank you for the quick reply. Yes! Used a scale to measure out the solid butter to the gram, and melted it in a saucepan, i measured out a little too much baking soda so it was closer to 1,5 tsp, and i used dark chocolate chips.
On the side note i would like to add that the cookies turned out fantastic and perfectly chewy but the dough being as hard as it was was a deal breaker unfortunately.
Loved this recipe. Baked them from frozen but they took 18 minutes at 350f. Absolutelu delicious.
This recipe is fantastic! I had been avoiding for ages, because I never have time to chill my dough before baking. Well, I finally found the time and these are absolutely the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten. It was so hard to shape the dough after it was chilled, so I came up with a hack (and have used it successfully on several recipes now!) – shape the dough balls BEFORE chilling, and then throw in the fridge to chill for the time required. When you’re ready to bake, everything is shaped and ready to go!
I haven’t tasted any of these yet but I can already tell they’re going to be delicious! I would like to give some frozen balls to my grandparents, could you provide any guidance on how to bake these in an air fryer? Thank you!
Hi Teah, we haven’t tested baking these in an air fryer, let us know if you give it a try!
hi!! i need m&m cookies for a christmas party, wondering if i can replace the chocolate chips with m&ms and it will still look good?
Yes, absolutely.
I was looking for a great CC Cookie recipe
Thank you for this!! It’s beyond what I could have hoped for!!
The most moist recipe that I’ve done
Which is my preference
Although a little too sweet so I added 200g light brown and brown sugar and was still a bit too sweet so will try adding 180g instead
Very delicious